


Say Something

by The_Zoni_Enthusiast



Category: Ratchet & Clank
Genre: Mute!Clank AU, R&C1 AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:46:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25975399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Zoni_Enthusiast/pseuds/The_Zoni_Enthusiast
Summary: A young Lombax, his Cazar best friend, and a robot who can’t talk. These are the three who must travel the galaxy for help while on the run from the Blarg forces. The reason? They are the only people who can reveal Galactic President Drek’s master plans to tear Solana’s planets apart and build the perfect home for the Blarg. R&C1 AU. Mute!Clank AU.
Kudos: 2





	Say Something

_"Good evening, Solana Galaxy; I'm Dallas Wannamaker. Breaking news as a protest broke out in Central Metropolis on Planet Kerwan over the drastic tax raise put in place by President Alonzo Drek, which seems to be funding a disruptive construction project that has been unrevealed to the public. President Drek won in a landslide victory over candidate Phyronix and has been in office for a year and a half, but citizens are beginning to question whether they made the right decision in their votes. President Drek has announced a presidential address later today in which he will discuss these topics-"_

Pulling up to their destination, the Blargian chauffeur turned off the radio at the button's click. Putting the presidential limousine in park and adjusting his hat to look as presentable as possible, the Blarg rolled down the window behind him to address his pristine passenger.

"President Drek, sir, we've arrived."

The passenger in the back lowered his newspaper, the look in his solid blue eyes indicated that he was already low on patience. "Keep the vehicle running. I plan on being in-and-out. I have more important matters to attend to, so I plan on wasting as little time as possible on this 'inspection.'"

"Yes, sir."

A pair of Blarg in black suits and sunglasses arrived at Drek's car door, where they opened it and cleared the way for his exit. Drek exited, but poked his head in for one last remark, "And refill the peanuts! I'm not paying you to laze around in that stupid outfit!"

The chauffeur flinched as the door was slammed shut. He slumped in his seat, "I should have never quit medical school..."

With the president's confidence that he felt the need to display, Drek, which his two security guards close behind, strutted towards the structure ahead: the warbot officer factory. When he had taken over as president, one of the first projects he put into place was to replace officers across the galaxy with his warbots. The warbots were tall, intimidating, and given a variety of different and dangerous weaponry. He had told the public that it was to ensure maximum protection for everyone, and he was glad that they were stupid enough to buy. However, while the factory had given him results that he wanted, he was required to visit it for a monthly inspection, which he much despised as he knew that there were better things he could be doing. If he had the choice, he would pawn off the unworthy job to one of his underlings. Any idiot could do it. It was only a warbot factory, after all. What in the cosmos could go wrong with it?

With his two guards close behind, Drek approached the entrance to the factory. The two warbot officer guards, positioned like intimidating statues, activated their sensors when they felt the oncoming heat signatures. Their single shining red eyes scanned the visitors with a light grid shooting out and down.

"It's me, you buckets of bolts. Move aside!" Drek commanded, his patience already wearing thin.

The scanning stopped immediately, and the two warbots quickly moved out of Drek's way. "Identification verified. Welcome, President Drek!"

Drek sneered at them before walking past them like they were never there in the first place. As impressive as the warbot's brawn was, their one-track minds sometimes got on his nerves. But if they were to raise their intelligence, the possibility of a revolt would be looming over them. He supposed he would have to settle for dim-witted over mindful. That was a thought he often had for his own people.

"President Drek, sir!"

Speak of the devil.

A somewhat scrawny Blarg who had been texting on his phone quickly stumbled over to meet his leader when he laid eyes on him. He scrambled to get a clipboard and adjust his glasses before trying his best to look professional. "You're right on time for the inspection!"

Drek was already checking his watch. "Then let's not waste more time than we have to, Stevie."

The Blarg eyed his own name tag. Not that Drek had even looked at it. "It's Stanley."

"Whatever. Go on now."

"U-Uh, right, Mr. President."

Stanley wasted no time, or preferably none of Drek's time, leading him across the rusty colored lobby. The guards kept a close eye on the mostly-Blarg citizens in there, watching their leader as he was led to the locked sliding doors that granted access to the deeper parts of the factory. The receptionist hesitated with her call as she watched him go in. Among the Blarg at least, it was common knowledge that Drek was not a fan of public appearances. Seeing him in public was about as rare as seeing a supernova. It could be as devastating as one, too.

After waving his ID badge in front of the sensor and gaining clearance, the metal doors slid open with a hiss, and Stanley took the lead down the dimly lit hallway. Drek looked around at the yellow lights adorning the walls before checking his watch. "I have somewhere to be after this, so let's walk and talk. Give me the statistics before I observe the factory line."

Stanley nodded before lifting some papers on his clipboard, squinting to read in the dim lights."Right, sir. Let's see, here...warbot production has been going smoothly. We have more materials than we could ever need, so we don't need to worry about resource depletion anytime soon."

"What about warbots that aren't up to the factory, and therefore _my_ standards? We may have an overabundance of resources, but that doesn't mean we can waste them because a defect dares to try and taint my warbot ranks."

"Well, not every warbot is going to be perfect…"

Drek gave his underling a look, his blue gaze looking most unpleased. "Pardon?"

Stanley stammered before finding a way to reword his sentence. The last thing he needed was a displeased president on his hands. Especially with those armed guards so close behind. "W-Well, I mean, there's always going to be a bug in the system here and there. But I assure you, every warbot who shows even the slightest defect are quickly disposed of and sent off to the nearest scrapyard. No flawed warbot leaves the factory alive."

"Now _that's_ what I like to hear," the short Blarg nodded in approval.

Stanley could feel the weight of the situation lifting. These visits always made him nervous. He knew that Drek didn't have the best temper. Or patience. Or sense of humor. If he were to make a list of things he felt nervous about whenever Drek was around, it could stretch over to the Polaris Galaxy. At this point, he was considering himself lucky that Drek was in such a rush. The less time he spent there, the less time things had to go wrong. There was some comfort in there, somewhere.

After a somewhat long trek down the hallway and an awkwardly silent elevator ride, the group arrived at the factory's main attraction. Conveyor belts stretched across the entire room, each one carrying a line of warbots. Each one started from the welding chamber, where their metal was forged and shaped, being put together as flames and smoke still lingered on their surface as they left the assembly chamber. They were put under an arch that wired into their CPU and installed their programming after being assembled. And for the final touch, each one was equipped with a weapon before being shipped out to a different part of the Solana Galaxy.

The heat and smell of burning metal hit the group immediately. While Drek was already finding it unbearable, Stanley was hardly affected, as he had grown used to it over time. "And here, of course, is the factory line. Warbot production has been great today."

Drek coughed, feeling like he was going to suffocate on the humidity. "The same cannot be said about the atmosphere in this cursed place. Just give me a brief overview of what I need to hear so we can leave.."

"Yes, sir. We've increased the temperature or the furnace by 1.3 degrees to help speed up the melding process by 0.6%..."

Drek sighed as Stanley rambled on and on about the factory. Desperate to find any sort of entertainment, his eyes wandered around the room. All there was to see was the constant push of the warbots along the factory line as they went about the usual preparation process. Eventually, his eyes were about to go back to Stanley to listen to a tiny bit of what he had to say. However, before his gaze settled, he believed that he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Drek quickly turned his head to see what it was. It was something very odd. Something...sparkly? Shimmering? With a sort of turquoise color? The more he thought about it, the crazier he thought he sounded. He didn't even see it anymore. Not wanting to question his sanity in the least bit, he decided to brush it off as his tired imagination. Being a busy president would do that to you.

However, it wasn't Drek's imagination. There had been a shimmering turquoise light, foolish enough to be caught in a person's sight for just a moment, but the excitement that the light felt did cloud its sense of stealth for just a moment.

The being traversed the complicated layout of the warbot factory, gracefully flying to the assembly chamber. It was not just here to have fun or go on a tour, it was here on a mission. A mission that was as close to its heart as anything else in the omniverse. A plan that it had been putting together for years was finally going to start. And while everything about it was dangerous and risky for both parties that would be involved, it couldn't be more excited. If it didn't need to be silent, it would be chuckling in pure joy and anticipation.

The assembly chamber was right in front of it. Big, intimidating warbots burned with fire as their bulky bodies were put together. Behind its invisible veil, the being made a face. While the warbot bodies were study and very brawny, it didn't quite fit its tastes. It had something else in mind for what it wanted. Though it would have to do some tampering with the machine to get the desired results.

Under its transparent cloak, the being held something close to its chest. Something more precious that the largest deposit of raritanium. It took a deep mental breath and closed its eyes, preparing to do something it had been training itself to do for a long time. However, it hesitated, as if it didn't want to let go of the precious thing in its hands. But it knew what had to be done. It muttered a single sentence as it began drawing in its power.

_"Go, my son…"_

With immense focus and power, the being sparked with energy. It released the object in its hands, and a green light darted around, already heading towards the assembly chamber. It smiled briefly before unleashing all the energy it gathered. An intense electric surge shot from its body and struck the power generators. Electricity flew from the damaged generators and began to scramble the assembly chambers AI.

Meanwhile, back over with the group of Blarg, Stanley was coming to a conclusion with his overview. Drek was checking his watch over and over again. But Stanley was too into his report to notice. Both of their focuses led to their obliviousness of the situation across the room.

Stanley lowered the last paper and looked at Drek. "They may not have the greatest intelligence, as directed per your programming advice, but when they detect something that we're not so fond of, they'll kill it without mercy."

"Heh, kill without mercy. Such beautiful words." Drek put his hands behind his back and paced around on the platform overlooking the assembly line. It was time to move things along. "Well, things seem to be going well here as far as I can see. I believe my inspection here is done."

"Th-Thank you, sir! We here at the warbot factory will make sure that everything goes according to your plans without a single error!"

Right as Stanley found extreme joy in knowing that Drek was pleased and he would live to see another day employed, sparks blew from the factory line, and the lights went out, plunging everyone in darkness. Stanley could already feel Drek's unimpressed gaze staring up at him as he became more and more nervous, clutching his clipboard tight.

"I hope you know that killing without mercy programming advice did not include them killing the lights," Drek commented with some tension in his voice.

"Nice," one of the Blarg guards added.

"I-I am so, so sorry about this, President Drek, sir! I'll get this fixed right away! Can I get a repair bot in here? Please? Hurry!" The scrawny Blarg struggled to find any sort of silver lining for this situation. Let alone a silver lining that could convince Drek. "Eheheh, I'm sure that this is just a small hiccup! A small, very easily repairable hiccup! Probably just a power surge. And in some eyes, a power surge can be a positive sign!"

"It doesn't look very positive. You had better change my mind before I leave here today."

Drek folded his arms, and Stanley nervously fiddled with his clipboard as a repairbot was dispatched. The little yellow robot flew across the room, lighting the way with its single eye. It chirped and beeped as it began looking for the problem. Since it was a power outage, though, the solution was simple. It made its way to the generator and initiated the backup power source before repairing the connection to the primary power source.

After some startup whirring and buzzing, the light flickered back on, and the assembly line started working again. Drek and Stanley rubbed their eyes as they adjusted to the new brightness. Stanley hesitated to look at Drek, and he regretted doing so since he looked most unimpressed.

"Uhhh...the lights are back on! Problem solved!" He said, trying his best to sound upbeat.

Drek opened his mouth to lay into the now flinching Stanley, but an alarm silenced him and caught everyone's attention. The two went over to the railing and looked down to see what the problem was. Stanley could feel his life slipping away. Another problem is the last thing he needed. It seemed to be a problem with the assembly chamber, as well. It was making a strange banging sound as the red alarm light spun around to indicate a malfunction.

A repairbot was about to be called again before smoke started coming from the chamber, signifying that something had been created. Stanley hoped it was just the chamber restarting and just building another warbot. But it wasn't quite that. It was making something, and it was a warbot, but it wasn't as simple as that.

After some smoke release and sputtering, the chamber finally spat out what it had created. Drek and Stanley looked down at just what came tumbling out. Though they were surprised that they could see it with how small it was.

A small robot came bouncing out of the chamber, making a 'clank' sound with each landing. It slid across the conveyor belt as it finally landed. It was motionless for a moment before ever so slightly lifting its head, shaking off its dizziness.

Stanley gripped the railing harder. It activated itself? That shouldn't be possible! _"What is that?"_

"A defect," Drek muttered, his eyes narrowing. The defect opened its eyes, the shining green light looking right up at Drek's hateful stare. Their gazes locked for a moment before Drek gritted his teeth and growled. "Kill it."


End file.
